a/n: i'm glad to be back on a schedule for updating again. please enjoy :)


The day of October 30th came around and the entire school was buzzing with excitement at the expected arrival of the visiting delegates. It was all anyone could talk about and Anya even woke Des up with how excited she was.

"It's a big day!" Anya said, ripping the curtain open on Des's bed, waking her up abruptly, "I'm trying to figure out if I should skip lunch to spruce up before last class, what do you think, Des?"

"I think you should let me sleep a little longer, thank you," Des groaned, rolling over and covering herself with another plush pillow. Anya scoffed at her and moved over to ask Gemma, who was up even earlier than she had been to find a way to wear her hair that would look best.

Not exactly how Des wanted to start her birthday off.

She was in a bad mood the rest of the morning, getting up on the wrong side of the bed. After she finally woke up that morning, she got dressed and headed down to breakfast where everyone was talking about the events that were to happen that afternoon. A frown cemented on her face, Des entered the Great Hall.

"Des! Desdemona!" Thomas called from the Slytherin table, waving her over. She looked at him, raising an eyebrow in confusion before making her way over and taking a seat in front of him. She supposed he wanted to talk about how excited he was for the tournament and was already prepared to be disappointed in his topic of conversation.

"You look quite down this morning," Thomas observed, "get up on the wrong side of the bed, Dolohov?"

"You could say that," Des said, looking over at Anya almost bitterly as she chattered away with Gemma and Daphne Greengrass, no doubt about visiting boys.

"I may have something that'll cheer you up, at least," Thomas said, pushing a plate towards Des so she could begin eating.

"I doubt that but I'll watch you try," Des said, accepting the plate and putting some eggs and toast on it. She was about to select some bacon to put on her plate as well when Thomas pushed a small, silver wrapped box toward her.

"Happy birthday," he said, giving her the most genuine smile that she had ever seen Thomas give. She looked from him to the package, almost in shock that someone else had actually remembered her birthday in the commotion that the Triwizard Tournament had brought to their school. She wasn't sure of what to say at that moment, barely opening her mouth before the whooshing of the post owls. She looked up spotting her family's eagle owl, Ursula, with a parcel for her, just as she had expected. The owl swooped, landing next to her with a sizable package. She gave Ursula a healthy piece of bacon and sent her to off to the owlery to rest so she could write a letter back to her parents, the first time she would have spoken to them since her departure.

Des looked back up at Thomas, still unsure of what to say. She hadn't expected anyone to remember, let alone give her a gift.

"Open it," he said, taking a bite of toast, "It made me think of you."

Des looked down at the silver box, barely touching it before, at Thomas' insistence, she finally opened the silver paper and lifted the lid off the box to reveal a small silver bracelet with three small charms, all with engravings of runes: Uruz for strength of will, Wunjo for joy, and Ehwaz for companionship. It was very simple, very delicate, and very beautiful. Des was, once again, completely speechless.

"You've got an affinity for Ancient Runes," Thomas said, Des forgetting that he had been watching her open his gift.

"This is beautiful," she said, "You didn't have to."

"I wanted to," Thomas said, "A bloke can't get his friend a gift for her birthday?"

Des smiled at him before putting the bracelet on her wrist.

"Does it look okay?" She asked, holding her wrist out.

"Like it was meant for you," he smiled, giving her a wink that once against caused her stomach to turn into a nervous knot before he returned to his breakfast. She looked down at her own plate, beginning to eat so that she would be able to run to her dormitory and put her gift with her other things before their first class that morning.

Des could not go a second without hearing about the tournament that day. Not very many students were paying attention in class that day, frustrating the professors to no end. It was a relief when the bell rang early, everyone returning their bags to their dorms and made their way out to the front of the castle, Professor Snape ordering them into lines by year. Des and the rest of the seventh years were in the back of these lines, Anya pushing up against Gemma who was, in turn, pushing Des into Thomas. Mumbling an apology to him, she straightened up. It was getting dark and cold and she was wondering how much longer it would take before these guests got here.

"It's almost time!" Anya said, jumping up and down like an excited child on Christmas as she looked at her watch. "It's nearly six!"

They all turned back to look at Dumbledore as he called out something about the Beauxbatons delegates approaching, everyone else turning back toward the sky and letting out gasps of surprise. What approached from the skies looked, to Des, like a small box drawn by horses. However, that box soon grew as they approached, as did the winged horses and Des could hear waves of astonished whispers move through the crowd of Hogwarts students. Soon, it was evident that it was a horse drawn carriage, much larger than anything any of them had ever seen, complete with enormous winged horses.

The carriage landed roughly, a landing that Des couldn't imagine anyone would have been happy about, and the door to the large, powder blue carriage sprang open. Des, from the back, struggled to see exactly what exited the carriage first before she could see what she could only assume was a woman who had to be part giant. It didn't matter than Des couldn't see her exit the carriage because, once she had completely left and stood straight up, she and all the other seventh years could see her just as well as if they had been standing in front with the first years, decked out in black satin with her hair slicked back into a low bun.

Then there was applause, beginning with Dumbledore from behind them and continuing in a wave as every one of the Hogwarts students clapped for the landing of the Beauxbatons students. Dumbledore stood to greet them, several students emerging from the carriage after their extremely large headmistress. They looked as if they were shivering, though one look at their uniforms and it would have made sense that they had gotten cold. They were clad in pale blue silk, some wearing scarves and hats but none of them in cloaks heavy enough to shield them from the late-autumn chill blanketing the Hogwarts grounds. They quickly made their way inside, presumably to warm up, while the Hogwarts students were left to wait for the Durmstrang students to arrive.

It was quiet after the Beauxbatons students left them for the warmth of the inside of the castle, the only sound being the snorting and stamping of the gigantic horses before one fourth year Gryffindor pointed toward the lake. Everyone turned to look, following the sound of the lake being disturbed. A small whirlpool appeared in the dark, glassy water, a black pole exiting the whirlpool slowly until you could see sails.

"Would you look at that," Thomas said, whistling in astonishment, "A whole ship."

And it was a whole ship. It rose from the whirlpool, looking eerily like a ghost ship had entered the lake. It felt so out of place, and a bit unsettling. If Des had not known that these were visiting students, she would have assumed that more than just the castle had ghosts. Finally, the ship docked on the shore of the lake, a plank lowering to the muddy bank with a thud. They watched as silhouettes left the ship, coming down the plank and up the shores. As if the opposite of Beauxbatons, these students donned thick, fur cloaks. A new wave of whispers began to travel up the students from Hogwarts as the Durmstrang group approached, greeted by Dumbledore.

"Des! Des, it's Viktor Krum! I told you!" Anya gushed, her eyes locked on the younger man next to the headmaster of Durmstrang. Des looked over at Thomas, who seemed just as enamored as Anya was, though Des knew why. Thomas was a Quidditch player and was, no doubt, in the presence of one of his heroes. She could hear several other students squabbling over whether they should try to get an autograph as the Hogwarts students filed into the entrance hall behind Durmstrang, making their way to the Great Hall. The houses each sat at their respective tables, Beauxbatons decided to take seats with Ravenclaw while someone managed to convince Durmstrang to sit with the Slytherins. It caused some excitement among her housemates, all of them wanting to move down to be close to the visiting school and Quidditch legend. While Des didn't care much for Quidditch, she did take notice that the Durmstrang party seemed much nicer than the Beauxbatons group, who all had various looks of unimpressed boredom on their faces.

Soon the feast began and a wide assortment of dishes rose from the empty golden platters in the middle of the table, including dishes that Des had never seen. She kept her dinner safe, opting for her usual steak and kidney pie over what she assumed was some sort of fish delicacy from Scandinavia. After the feast, Dumbledore introduced Ludo Bagman and Barty Crouch Sr., who organized the tournament. There was a round of applause before Dumbledore announced that they, among the headmasters of the schools, would be on the panel of judges for the champions, before calling Filch to bring in "the casket."

"That sounds quite sinister, doesn't it?" Des asked Thomas, who was sitting beside her, "The casket."

"I wonder what could be in it to have such a sinister name, eh?"

Filch wheeled in a grand, jewel encrusted trunk, excited murmurs buzzing through the hall as he made his way down the aisle between tables to the table where the professors sat.

"There will be three tasks, spaced throughout the school year, and they will test the champions in many different ways… their magical prowess – their daring – their powers of deduction – and, of course, their ability to cope with danger," Dumbledore began. The whole room waited for him to go on.

"As you know, three champions compete in the tournament, one from each of the participating schools. They will be marked on how well the perform each of the tournament tasks and the champion with the highest total after task three will win the Triwizard Cup. The champions will be chosen by an impartial selector: the Goblet of Fire."

Dumbledore took out his wand, tapping the chest. The lid creaked open and inside was a large, wooden cup.

"That was quite anticlimactic, wasn't it?" Thomas leaned over to whisper, causing Des to snicker in the silence before looking back at it. One more look at it and Des noticed that it was full to the brim with bright, blue fire.

"Anybody wishing to submit themselves as a champion must write their name and school clearly upon a slip of parchment and drop it into the goblet," Dumbledore said as he placed the cup on top of the casket, "Aspiring champions have twenty-four hours in which to put their names forward. Tomorrow night, Halloween, the goblet will return the names of the three it has judged most worthy to represent their schools. The goblet will be placed in the entrance hall tonight, where it will be freely accessible to all those wishing to compete.

"To ensure that no underage student yields to temptation, I will be drawing an Age Line around the Goblet of Fire once it has been placed in the entrance hall. Nobody under the age of seventeen will be able to cross the line.

Dumbledore went on to explain the danger of the tournament, offering a disclaimer to those who still wanted to enter that, should their name be chosen by the Goblet of Fire, it would be magically binding and that there was no change of heart once someone became a champion before dismissing them for bed.

Des could hear the chorus of disappointed groans about the Age Line, upset that there would be no way to enter if they did not become seventeen within the twenty-four hours that the cup was available.

"You going to enter your name?" Thomas asked as they walked back to the dungeons.

"I wasn't thinking about it," Des said, "If I did, I wouldn't want to do it alone at least."

"I say we enter."

"We enter a magically binding contract that won't let us drop out should we decide that we don't want the glory of winning an age old tournament for our school?"

"When you put it like that it makes it sounds so… dangerous."

"And it is?"

"I still say we enter," Thomas said, "Let's do it together."

Des had to admit, the idea of meeting up with Thomas to do anything together, even submit their names for the ultimate death competition, seemed nice. She wasn't sure what was going on with her or why she suddenly started reacting to Thomas this way but she decided, ultimately, that she would.

"Fine," she said, "I'll meet you in the entrance hall tomorrow morning and we'll put our names in together."

"Is that a deal?" Thomas asked, putting his hand out for Des to shake on it. She took his hand firmly.

"It's a deal."


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